Page:Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891 Volume 1).pdf/229

 was in quest, his double character as a working milker and butter-maker here during six days, and on the seventh as a man in shining broadcloth in his family pew at church, being so marked as to have inspired a rhyme—

Seeing Tess standing at gaze he went across to her.

The majority of dairymen have a cross manner at milking-time, but it happened that Mr. Crick was glad to get a new hand—for the days were busy ones now—and he received her warmly; inquiring for her mother and the rest of the family—(though this as a matter of form mainly, for in reality he had quite forgotten Mrs. Durbeyfield’s existence till reminded of the fact by her daughter’s letter).

‘Oh—ay, I knowed yer mother very well,’ he said terminatively. ‘And I heard of her marriage. And a aged woman of ninety that used to live nigh here, but is dead and gone long ago, once told me that the family yer mother married